Plenty of ways to keep pet safe in car

Road trips can be great — wind rushing through open windows, favorite tunes on the stereo and an abundance of scenery to take in — and having a happy, slobbering pooch riding along makes it that much better.

One of the fun parts of having pets is being able to incorporate them into your activities and do things with them; after all, most pet owners will quickly say their critters are part of the family.

Hiking, walks in the park, picnics, you name it, people like to have their pets by their sides.

Indeed, the rise in pet-centric consumers is driving retail and services to work harder to cater to and attract pet owners and it’s a trend sweeping marketplaces, particularly as millennial pet owners increasingly think of and treat their pets like family.

Not only is there a strong move to create and market products for pets, the movement is also spreading into other areas. Manufacturers and industries realize people want everything in their lives to accommodate their pets — top home builders are designing homes with built-in pet amenities such as special sleeping and bathing areas and pet doors — and if they want to stay relevant and competitive, they have to consider the fur-babies.

If home builders, workplaces, restaurants, hotels and all the other places people frequent are looking for ways to include the critters, it naturally follows the car would also be on the list — and now it is.

Vehicle manufacturers are evaluating how they can tailor their products to entice and satisfy the needs of pets and their owners. On Friday, Volvo Car USA released data gathered on how vehicles and pets intersect in the minds of consumers.

Teaming up with Harris Poll, Volvo conducted a survey of 2,000 adults — 1,342 of whom are pet owners — in early February as part of a series of reports by the manufacturer intended to “explore the ever-changing relationship between Americans and their cars,” a news release said.

Confirming that pet owners consider their pets to be family to the tune of 69 percent, what they discovered through the survey was most pet owners do drive with their furry companions — 97 percent — but not safely.

A reported 48 percent of dog owners said they do not own safety gear for driving with their pet, 41 percent allow their pet to ride up front, only 23 percent buckle their pet in and only 5 percent own a vehicle with a built in safety system.

However pet owners say they want their pets to be safe when they ride along and they appear to hold the vehicle industry responsible for making that happen.

A majority — 71 percent — said vehicle manufacturers should be proactive about building dog safety features into their vehicles, while 46 percent said those manufacturers that do not have built in dog safety features in their vehicles don’t care enough about pet safety.

And 38 percent of dogs owned by millennials are getting left behind at home because their people worry they won’t be safe in the car.

Data such as this is sure to lead Volvo — which reports it already has dog gates in some of its models — and other vehicle manufacturers to incorporate more features to make pets safe and comfortable when they go for a ride.

In the meantime, however, there are plenty of ways to make pets safer in the car — harnesses and seat-belts specifically designed for pets, carriers and kennels or safety gates — so the pup never has to miss out on a ride in the car.

Sharna Johnson is always searching for ponies. Contact her at: [email protected]